


Two Years Is Two Years

by idola



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 21:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20442809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idola/pseuds/idola
Summary: It's a long two years on the Mother Dragon.A long two years filled with every Hakuryuu fact imaginable.





	Two Years Is Two Years

Alibaba didn’t know what he was expecting when he saved Judar.

Some trash talking? Sure.

Some ice spears thrown his way? Wouldn’t be surprising in the least.

Both those things did happen sooner than later, though the ice spears were more like ice toothpicks. He saved Judar because they were in (approximately) the same situation and he wanted to know why. Not only that, but he couldn’t just let him die out in the middle of darkness, enemies or not.

You know what they say - keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Besides, it was a good chance to talk through their differences.

Unfortunately, Judar was slightly… adverse to talking things out.

_Slightly._

That was also pretty unsurprising.

The last time he’d seen Judar before this whole fiasco was years ago. Yes, he’d heard that he was in Sindria while they were out conquering Zagan. But the first and last time they’d been face to face was when they met in Balbadd, back when Cassim was still alive. When Judar treated Cassim like a dog, fighting with him on a leash. Acting like their lives were a game. Disrespecting all that Cassim stood for… no, not disrespecting. He didn’t care enough even for that.

Alibaba’s opinion of Judar had always been like that.

In this strange body, he didn’t get worked up as easily as he was used to. He expected to feel something strong when he thought about that time. It’d been years, but being face to face with a member of Al-Thamen who was directly responsible for things happening the way they did still meant something to him. He was wary of Judar who took advantage of Balbadd and changed Hakuryuu. He _did_ hold a grudge.

But there was something… different about him than what he’d been expecting.

“The hell is this? It tastes like shit!”

Alibaba propped another skewered leaf of whatever-it-was against the fire. He ignored Judar dramatically spitting it out.

“Ugh, what’d you _do_ to it? I might as well be eating it raw.” Judar sighed - again, very dramatically - and tossed the skewer Alibaba worked so hard on somewhere into the deep thicket. “Hakuryuu could’ve made it taste good.”

If Alibaba had an eye, it’d be twitching right about now. Judar had clearly never stopped being spoiled.

Since losing his body, Alibaba hadn’t been great with time. But he’d been with Judar for awhile now, and to say the least, Judar was _not_ who he’d been thinking he was since they first met in Balbadd. Back then he’d thought of Judar as some kind of threatening, peerless magician that could go head-to-head with a djinn.

But now - threatening? On the other side of a battlefield, yes. When he could barely make an icepick, a hornet was scarier.

Peerless? That was part of the problem, actually. They’d established pretty early on that Judar was _not_ inexperienced, but thankfully he avoided insulting Alibaba’s bad luck with women too much.

Instead, he picked another topic to toss into every conversation, without fail: Hakuryuu.

“…and it’s like you’re not even trying! Haha, no, what am I saying? This is just the best you can do, isn’t it! Man, if I had to be stuck here, couldn’t it be with Hakuryuu?” 

He _definitely_ didn’t care that the reason Alibaba was here was Hakuryuu and that it may be a sensitive topic for him. Actually, he appeared to be mildly proud - never mind Alibaba’s feelings about the guy who’d killed him.

More importantly, why Hakuryuu?

Alibaba never expected to know Judar. But the time he spent with Hakuryuu in Sindria wasn’t a lie. He still remembered Hakuryuu’s biting-cold comment when Sinbad asked him why he didn’t just conquer a dungeon with the help of Kou’s magi. Because he’d felt a sort of kinship with him at that moment, half-baked as it was.

That memory was completely at odds with what he was hearing now.

Alibaba was feeling seriously out of the loop. Of course he’d known Judar and Hakuryuu were working together since the summit. Judar was amply clear about that. But working together and _this_ were two different things. Since when was Judar so buddy-buddy with Hakuryuu?

“I mean, look at this! How did you make that—” Judar motioned to the perky fungus Alibaba was going through the trouble to cook for him—“turn into this?” He pointed towards the pile of hard-work he’d spit out. “I wish I could show this to Hakuryuu. He’d get a good laugh out of it.”

No, more than buddy-buddy.

“You wouldn’t know, but he’s pretty good at cooking. Spent all sorts of time learning how. Unlike you, he’s got the drive for that stuff.”

Judar absolutely _adored_ Hakuryuu.

“I would know, actually,” Alibaba interrupted. “We were in Sindria at the same time. He treated us to his home-cooked food.”

Judar stopped talking, mouth still open in surprise. Had he forgotten Alibaba was there? He’d been talking to him the whole time… 

Wait, no. He hadn’t forgotten. He was… sizing Alibaba up?

“You know, on second thought, I really am better off without you!!” Judar said as he tried to shove Alibaba into a thicket with his staff.

He was jealous!?

Their racket attracted the attention of a nearby monster, which went exactly as it did the past five times. They seemed to really enjoy the taste of flesh. It’d be creepy if it weren’t funny, since they were pretty easy to defeat.

After another round of saving Judar from monsters, he got another earful.

“What took you so long!?”

Out of the things he’d learned about Judar so far, this was the first and most obvious: he absolutely loved to complain. Sometimes he complained without even seeming to care, like right now. Alibaba could already see his mind wandering as he jabbered half-heartedly about Alibaba’s less than stellar fighting technique, how stupid he looked using a weapon with such stubby arms, and so on.

“Oh, and I’m still hungry. Did I say you could stop cooking?”

“Do _you_ know how to cook?” Alibaba asked.

“Me? What do I need to cook for?” Judar asked, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s not like there aren’t chefs in the palace.”

“Chefs? So you don’t eat with Hakuryuu?” Judar really brought out the worst in people. An eye for an eye was fair game, though, right?

Without giving it even a second of thought, Judar tried to shoot a few more ice picks at Alibaba. As always, it failed.

Alibaba just waited. He’d exhaust himself eventually.

Honestly, he was starting to feel like a babysitter. Judar had a lot of energy for someone in their situation. A lot of hope, too. It just didn’t mesh with his expectations of what a fallen magi would be like.

When Judar did finally exhaust himself, he demanded Alibaba to stand guard while he slept.

It was, to say the least, another long day.

In a realm with no day and no night, it was impossible to say when morning was. So it became whenever Judar woke up, which was either a very short amount of time or an incredibly long amount of time. He stretched and mumbled something about wanting a bath before falling into his routine.

“When are we gonna get back already? I wanna see how it’s going. Hakuryuu’s probably fighting right now, isn’t he?”

It was hard to tell. Alibaba felt like it’d been hundreds of years. Judar acted like it’d been days.

He wished he could be as optimistic as Judar was about it. But as he was it was hard to get excited about much of anything as he was now.

So he spent a lot of time just listening. Even if Judar’s optimism wasn’t infectious, it was still… nice. Hopeful. At the very least, better than being insulted.

Needless to say, he learned a lot about Hakuryuu.

Alibaba really missed Aladdin. He did. He also missed Morgiana, his household, and even Sharrkan and the others back at Sindria. 

But Judar talked about Hakuryuu enough that it was starting to make Alibaba miss him _for_ Judar. What was he doing right now? Was he winning the war? He was strong, so he’d be fine. Alibaba heard those daily.

He also heard whatever random Hakuryuu facts Judar felt the need to give him throughout the day. Hakuryuu can cook better than this (though apparently Judar had no significant first-hand experience). Hakuryuu can fight better than you (and Judar didn’t speak a word of how long it took for Hakuryuu to get there - whether he was just ignorant of Hakuryuu’s… skillful… capturing of Zagan or if he didn’t care due to his blatant favoritism, Alibaba didn’t know). 

It took awhile for him to feel like Judar might answer him instead of just shooting him down, but he finally asked the question that’d been on his mind since meeting Judar in this backwards world after a couple of days - weeks? months? - of flying in the dark.

“Since when were you and Hakuryuu so close?”

From his place on Judar’s staff as they flew through the dark, Alibaba couldn’t see Judar’s expression. He could feel his hands tighten on the staff, though, and gave him a pretty good idea.

“What’s it to you?”

“The Hakuryuu I knew didn’t want to use your power. What changed? I want to understand that.”

Hakuryuu had made a point of not using Judar’s power back in Sindria when he practically begged Sinbad to let him try conquering Zagan. That was understandable enough: he probably didn’t want to be associated with Al-Thamen. Who did?

But then he joined up with Judar. Not just as partners in crime, but as friends, if Judar’s adoration was anything to go by.

“It doesn’t matter when or why! Just that we’re a way better team than you and Aladdin!”

If Alibaba had eyes right now, he’d roll them. He was pretty sure the only way Judar knew how to communicate was with insults. Still, if Judar and Hakuryuu had somehow become friends despite their differences, he could empathize with him. Wanting to see your friends after all of this was natural. They were comforting, warm, safe. Everything that this messed-up dark world wasn’t.

It was the first thing about Judar that he could understand. He had his rough patches… okay, he was almost all rough patches, but if Hakuryuu put his trust in him, there must be something trustworthy about him.

Right?

\---

The Mother Dragon was welcome company. She strengthened Alibaba’s resolve and gave shape to his purpose. Told them when this endless journey would end.

(Judar complained for weeks that the end was too far, though. Two years was definitely not short, but it was better than five. At least they’d still be young.)

It was at around that point that Alibaba became certain that Judar was an idiot.

Well, maybe that was the wrong way to put it. He was an all-powerful magi, but a lot of that power was due to luck. Even his ideals sounded like they were straight from Al-Thamen’s evil book of how things should be rather than something he personally gave any thought to.

Calling him an idiot might be harsh. But aside from magic-related matters, his memory was spotty at best. That or he just didn’t care enough to remember much else.

He never talked about any hobbies. He never talked about his past.

It was just weird. Who _was_ Judar?

Alibaba did occasionally talk about his friends. Like Judar said, two years was two years. There was no harm in getting to know each other a little.

Judar didn’t really give a shit, though. He listened only enough to give derogatory nicknames to all of Alibaba’s friends.

Muscle woman, Alibaba’s girl (okay, he enjoyed that one a _little_), Fanalis chick.

Pipsqueak, shitty magi, and - rarely - Aladdin.

Olba, Toto, and the others were dubbed the “shitty taste band” for picking a “loser king” to be household to.

Alibaba gathered that Judar didn’t think to highly of households in general.

When he asked, all Judar had to say was that they got in the way of the bond between king and magi. How a household could get in the way when they were on his side, Alibaba had no idea.

“Does Hakuryuu have a household?”

“How should I know! We’ve been out here for like a year! But if he does, it’s the strongest household ever made. Unlike you, Hakuryuu doesn’t fall for the whole pity-party thing!”

Alibaba ignored his insults and rephrased his question, something he’d gotten very good at recently. “_Did_ he have a household?”

“…Not really? I mean, sorta.”

What kind of answer was that!?

One year in, one whole, entire _year_ and he was still getting answers like this.

Alibaba was pretty sure they’d never be friends at this rate. Honestly, he was happier that way. He didn’t need someone like Judar in his life anyway.

Still, time moved on. Day after day, in his wooden body, Alibaba lacked the need to take care of it. Judar needed to stop to eat, bathe, and sleep. Alibaba was sympathetic, sure, but did he _have_ to spend so much time washing his hair?

“You could just cut it,” Alibaba offered about thirty minutes into Judar washing and braiding his hair, a daily ritual that lasted far too long.

That was all it took to get a _sharrar_ to the face.

“I hope you mold,” Judar grumbled.

His hair, his magic, power, and Hakuryuu.

A year and that was all Alibaba was sure Judar even cared about.

\---

Trying to understand his only company was difficult, but what other entertainment did he have?

It did feel good when Alibaba made progress. Judar was, in a way, similar to Aladdin. There were parts of him that were like Morgiana, too. Honestly, from the outside he seemed the least like Hakuryuu out of everyone.

Aladdin and Judar were both magi. Powerful, revered magicians who could do anything they wanted, if they wanted to. Aladdin chose to use his power to help people. Judar chose to use it to destroy. No matter how he acted on a daily basis, he was open to admitting why Aladdin shot him as far as he could: he tried to summon the medium.

Why?

Because he wanted to destroy the world with a smile.

That was something Cassim felt back then too, wasn’t it?

It was hard to swallow. Getting information out of Judar was like pulling teeth. He hated talking about himself and changed the topic so fast it was like it’d never come up in the first place. He preferred to talk about Hakuryuu.

Judar wanted to fight by Hakuryuu’s side. That was something Morgiana had said about Alibaba.

Hakuryuu was… Hakuryuu. Serious to a fault, focused, bothered by the little things. The exact opposite of Judar. But according to Judar, they shared a goal. They were similar. That was why Hakuryuu did what he did to Alibaba.

Still, if two years was enough to change Hakuryuu that much, how different would he be when they saw him again after their long absence?

At the very least, Judar didn’t seem concerned.

“So you’re going to go back to what you were doing when we get back?” Alibaba asked cautiously.

Judar did stop to think about it, to his credit.

“Obviously. Hakuryuu wouldn’t get tired out from just one war, you know.”

Hakuryuu aside… from where he was standing, Judar looked a little tired.

\---

Alibaba was beginning to understand Judar’s side of things, too. Not in what he did say, but what he wasn’t saying.

Hakuryuu was the only person Judar ever talked about.

Three and a half years ago now, in Sindria, Hakuryuu wanted nothing to do with Judar.

It was perfectly reasonable to grow to adore someone in that time. However, according to Judar, Hakuryuu obtained Belial less than two months from the time they fought. Hakuryuu wouldn’t have waited to conquer a dungeon once he decided to team up with Judar.

Two months was a very, very short amount of time. Alibaba and Judar had been travelling through the Dark Continent for much, much longer than that, and they’d barely gotten to the point that they could have a normal conversation.

He could ask why Judar didn’t team up with Hakuryuu sooner if their teamwork was so good all he wanted, but it wasn’t like Judar would justify it with an answer. Besides, he had a pretty good guess.

It looked like he and Hakuryuu worked together well when Alibaba and Aladdin confronted them, so there was that… wait.

Alibaba shook his wooden head. Why was he thinking about this again!?

Still, Judar’s enthusiasm was, in a very round-about way, infectious. It made him realize just how much he appreciated Aladdin and Morgiana. They’d done so much for him - helped him out in Balbadd even when he didn’t make the right choices, stayed with him through his mourning over Cassim, encouraged him to become stronger until he was a man worthy of Amon. They’d been through so much together and spent so many nights staying up late, talking and joking and getting scolded by the maids in Sindria for keeping the neighboring guests awake.

Friends were really an amazing thing. He could see why Judar loved his friend so much.

“By the way, Judar, you’re close to Kougyoku, right?”

“That old hag? Ugh, no way. Her wrinkles might be contagious.”

As usual, the second he thought he was about to understand Judar, he said something obnoxious that made Alibaba want to slug him in the face. “She talked a lot about you in Sindria, though!”

“Isn’t that just because she’s got no real friends?”

Alibaba bit back an _and you do?_ \- it just wasn’t worth it.

Maybe Judar could only communicate by picking fights and complementing Hakuryuu, but Alibaba tried to avoid sinking to his level too often. Otherwise he’d be picking fights with Aladdin left and right once he returned instead of celebrating.

\---

“I wonder what Hakuryuu’s doing now…”

“It’s been over a year and a half,” Alibaba said. “A lot could’ve happened.”

Bad things could have happened, too. Hakuryuu’s legs were cut off, and his arm was long gone. Even if Hakuryuu had Zagan, just the act of walking would take a lot of magoi.

To think that Judar was more optimistic than him at times like this. If someone told Alibaba that back in Balbadd, when Cassim was still alive, Alibaba wouldn’t believe them.

He loved his friends and trusted that they’d be alright, and Judar trusted that Hakuryuu would be alright. But he didn’t have any allies now that Judar was gone. 

Alibaba glanced at Judar’s frown. He was deep in thought. Sometimes he got like that. Surprisingly, he did spend a lot of time thinking, too. He sometimes blurted out ideas for destructive magic or commented that a fabric might be nice to wear. When prompted, he’d even comment on rukh composition or other things only magicians could comprehend. He spoke about his ideals sometimes, but they didn’t change. They were still straight out of Al-Thamen’s Book of How to Be Evil, no matter how much Alibaba tried to reason with him.

For the most part, he just talked about wanting to see Hakuryuu. They had to be close, somehow. But Judar didn’t really express it well. Not that he expressed anything well… 

Everyone had their quirks, he supposed. It reminded Alibaba ever so slightly of Morgiana. As much as she did for him, she only really knew how to talk about her strength on the battlefield. The things she was trained to do as a slave. Breaking things and killing for the sake of protecting. She wasn’t allowed to have interests like a normal girl growing up, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to.

Alibaba felt his mind wandering. He missed her. He wanted to see her pouting face, wondering why it took him so long, and her bright smile when he returned. Would she be sad that he was gone for so long, or would she have learned to smile a little more often?

He had to find food, water, and fight dungeon monsters. He’d been so focused on survival - on Judar’s survival - to avoid the worst case scenario that he pushed those distracting thoughts to the back of his mind while they were on the move. That didn’t mean he didn’t feel them too.

He missed Morgiana. Was she wishing he was there the same way he was wishing she was here?

Did she think he was truly dead? That’d be the worst. But there was no way to convey that he was alright as they were, so far away from everything they knew. If he could just tell her he was okay, and that he was still waiting for her… 

No offense to Judar, but if he was stuck here with someone he’d much rather it be her. She’d defeat monsters before he knew they were there, help him with cooking, and give him a chance to talk, too, instead of making fun of every word he said. If it were her, they could both relax. He could feel like a human instead of a tool.

Then it clicked.

Was that what Judar had been feeling about Hakuryuu this whole time?

Once he made that connection, everything suddenly made a lot more sense.

According to the Mother Dragon, they were three fourths of the way there. Eighteen months. Five hundred fifty days with no one but each other, and they only got along a fraction of those days.

How could he not feel a little lonely every now and then?

\---

It took a long time, but Alibaba could finally say he was getting the hang of communicating with Judar. Beginning to understand him.

From the beginning, he’d never been a part of Al-Thamen willingly. That was why he and Hakuryuu teamed up - they had the same goal of getting rid of the organization. And they’d been successful.

Violent as their methods had been, Alibaba was thankful for that. If Al-Thamen was gone, they couldn’t make people like Cassim suffer anymore than they already had. Hakuryuu, Dunya, and even Judar were all victims, too.

(Judar would kill him if he heard that thought, though. He didn’t like other people thinking about his past, from what Alibaba understood.)

He learned a couple more things about Judar from conversation starters that never went anywhere. Things like what he did like to eat (since he knew all sorts of what he hated eating already), what kinds of magic he wanted to learn next, what he thought of Kouen, Koumei, anyone he could think of. But maybe not Sinbad. He wasn’t sure what to think about Sinbad just yet.

Judar could be funny at times. His derogatory nicknames were great fun when it was someone Alibaba wasn’t too partial to either.

“Did you ever have any nicknames for Hakuryuu?” Alibaba asked. “You guys used to not get along, right?”

“Huh? No, I always liked Hakuryuu.”

“…The kind of relationship where it just clicks, huh?”

“Yeah! I’ve known him since he was a little brat,” Judar said, and held his hand up a couple feet to what Alibaba assumed was supposed to be Hakuryuu’s height back then. “Man, he was always crying and running for his sister… haha…”

“Don’t you hate people like that, though?”

Judar frowned. “Why would I hate Hakuryuu?” 

He really did just pick and choose what he hated whenever it was convenient! But the more Alibaba listened to him, the more he thought that kind of dedication was amazing!

Even his own household usually thought other people were cooler, and here Hakuryuu had someone with eyes only for him… wait, was Alibaba really going to get jealous about this? He had a magi, too!

He remembered meeting Aladdin for the first time. They hadn’t exactly been inseparable from the get-go, but sooner than later they were planning all sorts of adventures together.

“I admire your loyalty,” Alibaba said, carefully picking his words. “You guys are like me and Aladdin, right?”

Judar looked at him blankly. That was usually his first response when Alibaba said something he didn’t expect. Which was weird, since Alibaba thought it was a pretty obvious comparison to be drawing. He’d made it before, so—

“Huh!? Disgusting!!”

What did he misunderstand this time!?

“You’re nothing like us!” Judar said. “Me and Hakuryuu are way closer!”

Seriously, what did that even mean!? They’d already established that any real ‘closeness’ was made in two months.

“We’ve been friends longer than you guys have!” Alibaba said. Sometimes, for all his effort, they ended up arguing anyway. “How can you possibly be way closer!?”

“We’ve known each other longer!”

“That doesn’t mean anything if you weren’t friends until recently!”

“We’re not just friends! How stupid can you get, Hanibaba?” Judar muttered, twisting his fingers through his braid.

Alibaba almost fell off the Mother Dragon. “Y… you’re more than friends!? With Hakuryuu?”

Judar gave him the least impressed face he’d ever seen, though he was red with bashfulness. 

Even if he acted like it was supposed to be obvious, how? No matter how much he thought of it, Alibaba couldn’t imagine Hakuryuu going for Judar’s type. Hakuryuu valued hard work, not… Judar, of all people!

“Why’re you so surprised?” Judar grumbled.

Would it be rude to say what he was thinking?

Okay, it definitely would be. Especially since Judar seemed to understand from his expression alone, for once.

“I’m a magi, you know. Aladdin might’ve won this time, but I’ll win next time for sure. Then I’ll be the strongest magician in the world. It’s no wonder Hakuryuu would team up with me! Besides, we’re the same!”

That… wasn’t really the reasoning Alibaba was hoping to hear. It just made it sound like he was being used.

Is this how Cassim felt when Zaynab and Hassan asked him about their love life? Alibaba didn’t feel qualified to be having this conversation.

Thankfully, there was no way that Judar actually wanted his input.

“I can’t wait to see everyone again,” was what Alibaba ended up saying.

Judar didn’t argue with that.

\---

Seeing another living, breathing human being was surreal. The way he walked was different from Judar, and their way of speaking couldn’t be more different. Yunan was soft-spoken and relaxing. Judar was shorter and thinner than him.

It was weird, having Judar be the familiar against the unfamiliar and the reference he used for the world.

“Alibaba, come this way. I have your body…” 

Judar picked him up like there wasn’t a person inside his wooden body - he did that a lot - and handed him to Yunan like a dog without looking in his eyes.

He couldn’t tell if they’d gotten close or not. Judar probably didn’t know either. 

At least they got close enough to understand that about each other.

At the end of their long, long journey Alibaba had another long road ahead: rehabilitation.

It did take time. But Yunan spoke to him kindly and of a variety of topics, from how he’d gotten better at making tea since Morgiana was here to the state of the world.

It was less that he returned to his world and more like he was transported to a new one.

Everything was different, and that brat Judar ran off first thing so Alibaba could deal with his new-found culture shock himself.

Well, with Yunan. But Yunan didn’t really react to much, and his sympathy was pretty flat. But maybe that was just because he’d gotten too used to Judar’s over-the-top reactions to everything.

He met up with Sinbad and Kougyoku again. They’d changed so much that finding a way to relate to them took time.

A lot could happen in three years. All this time, he’d taken his place in the world for granted. That he could be a part of time as it advanced was natural. But even if he wasn’t there, time still advanced. People still changed and grew.

He hoped Morgiana had kept waiting for him.

\---

Alibaba couldn’t look Hakuryuu in the eye now. It was too damn awkward.

Firstly, he was kind of the reason he’d spent two years on a dragon without his body. Alibaba forgave him, but still! What better way to ruin a friendship!?

Secondly, well… he couldn’t seem to think Hakuryuu’s name in his own voice anymore. Hearing Judar talking about him nonstop for two years was enough to give him an expectation of some sort that Judar would come running out of nowhere to tackle Hakuryuu to the ground when he was in sight. The more time that passed, the more suspicious he got. There was no way Judar spent all that time gushing about Hakuryuu to just run off and never see him again - it was only a matter of time. Judar better not crash his proposal plans.

Thirdly, and worst of all, he knew far too much about Hakuryuu now. Maybe Aladdin knew how to erase memories. Was that a thing magi could do? He really, really hoped so.

Luckily, the night of their reunion proceeded without a hitch. By morning Hakuryuu was already gone to go look for Judar.

He hoped they found each other soon. 

In the meantime, Alibaba had lots to do. He had to catch up with Aladdin and Morgiana. There were so many things he wanted to talk to. About how their time without him had been, about the new world.

He easily reclaimed his place in the world by the friends he conquered Zagan with. But it didn’t feel right. Judar belonged there, too. Beside Hakuryuu if nothing else. So it wasn’t surprising at all when Hakuryuu left to find him. It was kind of refreshing, actually.

He’d really like it if they could all stand on the same ground and talk like friends instead of enemies.

When Judar returned to Rakushou and everyone greeted him like a friend, it was a nice change of pace from the last time they’d all been together.

They’d (almost) become friends over the long two years spent between worlds, and in that time, Alibaba had still never seen Judar make a face half as pleased as the one he was showing Hakuryuu now.

Somehow, it made him happy.


End file.
